democracynow.org – We go to Kabul to speak with an Afghan peace activist about the shooting spree by an U.S. Army sergeant in Afghanistan, which killed 16 Afghan civilians, nine of them children. Calls for a more rapid withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan have escalated after the U.S. soldier reportedly walked more than a mile from his base, breaking in to three separate houses to attack families as they slept. Villagers say he then gathered 11 bodies and set them on fire, including the bodies of four girls younger than six. The attack comes as the United States and Afghanistan are negotiating the Strategic Partnership Agreement, the framework for U.S. involvement in Afghanistan after foreign combat troops leave at the end of 2014. “We feel that surely governments need to resolve this conflict through diplomacy and move away from the failed military strategy that has resulted in all that we are witnessing today,” says the Kabul-based peace activist who goes by the name “Hakim.” He is the coordinator for Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers.

democracynow.org – The anger provoked by the U.S. soldier’s attack on 16 Afghan civilians comes amidst outrage over civilian deaths from U.S. drone strikes and a growing humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan. Hundreds of Afghan children die daily from hunger even as the United States spends some $2 billion a month on maintaining its occupation. We speak with Kathy Kelly, co-coordinator of Voices for Creative Nonviolence, who has just returned from Afghanistan to stand trial for her role in a protest at a U.S. base over the use of drones. “When is the United States going to understand the rage and antagonism felt by civilians who borne [sic] year after year after year of attacks — unprovoked and uncaused attacks against civilians — as the United States has used its occupation to try to dictate the future of people in Afghanistan?” Kelly asks.

The U.S./Afghanistan/Pakistan military strategy has failed beyond human repair, and should not be continued under the guise of the U.S./Afghan Strategic Partnership Agreement. It wastesU.S.tax payer money only to fuel anti-U.S. sentiments which worsen bothU.S.and Afghan security.

“These killings only serve to reinforce the mindset that the whole war is broken and that there’s little we can do about it beyond trying to cut our losses and leave,” said Joshua Foust, a security expert with the American Security Project.

In Afghanistan, this military strategy has caused the death of more than 3000 civilians in 2011 alone and in Pakistan, it has cost the lives of 40,000 civilians; would U.S. citizens have been able to tolerate the equivalent of having September 11’s every year for 10 years?

This war has understandably caused anger, post-death traumatic stress, grief and vengeful feelings among Afghans, Pakistanis, the Taliban, Al Qaeda and other opponents ofU.S.foreign policy, as well as tit-for-tat, commensurate feelings amongU.S.and international soldiers.

Wars escalate ‘terror’ acts.

These sentiments boiling in the quagmire of Afghan corruption, poverty, unemployment and a dire humanitarian situation ( Afghanistan is the worst place on earth for mothers and children, with children dying from basic challenges like chronic malnutrition and the winter cold ) will unfortunately erupt into more ‘terrorist’ responses in retaliation for losing loved ones.

The Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers call forU.S.and Afghan citizens to be calm, non-violent, brave and kind to one another, as the world discusses how to end the Afghan war.

Global citizens ought to focus on the root problems of severe economic inequalities and the 1%-driven corruption that Afghanistan and the world faces, and reason with the Obama/Karzai administration and other Powers not to waste tax-payers’ ‘blood and treasure’ on wars that will never be won, on wars that are certain to see a repetition of Kandahar-type killing sprees.

3 a.m.
Walk a mile with loaded weapons.
Will I be killed?
Enter Afghan homes.
See sleeping Afghan children, women and men.
Shoot!……..!
Set the dead on fire…

In particular, the Kandahar killing spree is a call to debate the US Afghan Strategic Partnership Agreement and its basis of war against terrorism.

It is a call to question the lazy global presumption that military strategies are necessary for conflict resolution and defense, and therefore for peace.

Thankfully, Egyptians have questioned this presumption by rejecting military rule.

In late November 2011, ordinary Egyptians re-amassed in Tahrir Square. “The people want the fall of the marshal,” protesters chanted, referring to General Tantawi. Banners read : “This land belongs to Egyptians. It is not for sale and does not need any guardians.” And, “All Egyptians demand an Egypt run by civilians.” They do not think that the military can bring them the freedom they have wanted for 40 years.

U.S.citizens should be aware that while the mainstream media harp on U.S.troops withdrawing from Afghanistan, there will not be a complete withdrawal. The Obama administration plans to keep up to 20,000 mainly Special Ops troops in Afghanistan with the signing of the U.S. Afghan Strategic Partnership Agreement. U.S. citizens should realize that this agreement will be sealed with at least 4.1 billion U.S. dollars of their tax money annually. Importantly, the agreement is against the interests of U.S. national security for all the opposition it has already elicited and may very well inspire another September 11th tragedy in the U.S. or elsewhere ; one of the reasons Osama Bin Laden gave for September 11th was the presence of U.S. military bases in Saudi Arabia.

For Afghans, it will compromise their sovereignty, a sovereignty which the Iraqi parliament preserved in rejecting the parallel US/Iraq Status of Forces Agreement. It will create for Afghans the chronic un-happiness that the Japanese have had with the U.S.military base in Okinawa or others have had over the more than 700 U.S. military bases in the world.

The U.S. Afghan Strategic Partnership Agreement is the same military strategy that has led to the Kandahar killing spree and that will lead many more Afghans to detest the U.S. and many more Afghan mothers to grieve for years to come.

This Afghan mother is questioning the global war against terrorism, asking us who the Talib/terrorist is, her 2 year old sleeping child or the U.S. military whose soldier killed her child along with 15 others.

We the Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers join her in grieving and questioning. We call for all to stop killing, to be calm, non-violent, brave and kind to one another, as we discuss how to end the Afghan war (read Amy Goodman’s interview with us on Democracy Now or watch the interview at [see above video]. We prefer the decisions of our Egyptian and Iraqi friends, that is, we wish for non-military, diplomatic strategies, not military strategies that have destroyed our land over the past 4 decades. We believe that nonviolent international relations are what all of humanity yearns for, and we look for a world in which violent acts like the Kandahar killing spree are resolved in peaceful ways.

For Afghan mothers at least, we should question the military strategy that will be perpetuated in the U.S./Afghan Strategic Partnership Agreement.

ENOUGH OF THIS MADNESS,THE 10 YEARS OF LIVING HELL THIS PIECE OF CRAP COUNTRY HAS BEEN INFLICKING ON ARAB COUNTRIES ,AS FAR AS I’M CONCERNED,BECAUSE OF THE UTTER LACK OF A MASSIVE/VIABLE ANTI WAR/GOV/WALLSTREET/NEW WORLD ORDER AND ON &ON!!!!WHAT THE HELL IS HAS TO HAPPEN BEFORE THE GENERATIONS THAT CAME OF AGE THE LAST 30 YEARS IN AMERIKA GET OFF THEIR ASSES IN MASSIVE NUMBERS,TAKE TO THE STREETS IN PROTEST,FOR AS LONG AS IT TAKES TO SHUT WASHINGTON&WALLSTREET DOWN TILL THIS INSANITY STOPS FOREVER& ALL THE IDIOTS BEHIND THIS INSANIYT ARE BEHIND BARS!!!!!!! ENOUGH TALK ALREADY,THE TIME FOR MASSIVE ACTION IS NOW!!!!!!!

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